“They can feel my pain!” I grit my teeth and answer through the tears making rivers down my face.
“Beautiful!?” Kai panics.
“I’m here Kai.” My heart pounds at the sound of his voice.
The pain slowly seems to be fading from the guys and they all get up looking around for me.
“Where the fuck is, she?” Levi growls in a voice I’ve never heard before.
I realise I’m unintentionally hidden behind Jett’s team and I’ve been viewing them through the legs of the team. They realise this at the same time and move aside quickly. I catch the shocked looks on their faces asthey move though. It’s obviously very rare that Levi sounds this out of control. My guys gaze drops down to me kneeling on the floor and they all rush over, skidding on their knees along the grass verge as they come to a stop, I’m vaguely aware of Erin’s team watching from the side-lines but my attention is solely on my men.
“Titch!” Maverick growls, his pine green eyes panicked.
“Where are you hurt Darling?” Levi asks his voice only slightly more controlled than before.
I glance around looking for Jax and Kai, this is going to affect them the most. Jax is on my left and I reach to grasp hold of his hand firmly, I see Kai standing off to the side slightly and watch as he fights the demons in his eyes, his fists clenched and shaking at his sides.
“I need Kai.” I say looking up to my gorgeous Hunter and begging him with my eyes to understand.
He clenches his jaw tightly in understanding and gets up to grab his brother, pulling him over. I hold Kai and Jax’s hands firmly in mine.
“My back,” I look over to Jax, “don’t look.” I plead with him.
The others get up and walk behind me.
“Fuck, Sweetheart I’m going to have to cut this off to see the damage ok?” Hunter rumbles unsuccessfully hiding the emotion in his voice.
I nod once. Jett’s team slowly rounds me to see what’s wrong.
“You fucking let her run losing this much blood!” Levi growls at Jett, his voice uncontrolled once again, he takes a threatening step forward, Maverick at his side and the other team back up slowly.
“Levi!” I snap shocking him into turning to me.
I can see the barely contained fury he’s trying to contain flaring in his green eyes, the gold flecks flaring brightly.
“They didn’t know. I put a barrier around my emotions and pain, even I couldn’t feel how much pain I was in. How the hell were they supposed to guess when I told them I was well enough to fight and run?”
He looks at me confused but is distracted when Hunter begins to talk.
“I’m going to take it off now Sweetheart, it’s going to hurt. It’s started to stick to the wound underneath.”
I don’t have the heart to tell him right now that it’s more than one wound, he will figure it out momentarily. I nod in acknowledgement and clutch Kai and Jax’s hands tighter. I feel it when he slowly peels the fabric from my back and just barely manage to bite back a scream of pain.
“Holy fuck!” Hunter curses.
Maverick moves back around me, and I feel Jax start to move but grab him tighter. He can’t see this. Logically I know he’s going to see it eventually, but he doesn’t need to see the fresh wounds.
“Oh fuck!” Maverick curses savagely before he stumbles away, and I can hear the sound of him throwing up.
Levi comes to crouch in front of me, his face is ghostly pale, buthis eyes are bright with rage, his hands clenched at his side. Jax and Kai exchange a panicked glance and try to tug free. I refuse to let go of them though.
“Sage, Darling, what happened to your back?”
I know I’m going to have to tell them and that I can’t protect Jax from it completely, he wouldn’t want me to anyway. I will keep him from seeing it though, hopefully that will lessen the impact a small amount.
“I remembered the year I lost. It’s all connected all the fucked-up parts of my past are connected. They wanted to see if my powers had awakened yet.” I pause and whisper, “They figured I wouldn’t use them willingly and that the best way to force my hand was torture, they used a steel tipped whip.” My eyes never leave the side of Jax’s face.
As I finish his head whips up, his haunted and panicked eyes meet mine before being completely eclipsed by rage. He starts to stand up and I grip his hand for all I’m worth.
